Third Level Costs
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Naoise Ó Cearúil (FF), Kildare North

I welcome that. It is really positive. Deputy Jen Cummins mentioned earlier children who are estranged from their parents, etc., and having to rely on their parents then when they are looking for student grants or if they are not getting student grants, even though they are estranged. The Minister's response to that made complete sense. It could increase the number of people claiming they are estranged when they might not be.
The Minister and spoke outside the House about the other issue I raise. He stated that about 80% of the population are eligible for some sort of SUSI grant. I do not know if this is being planned but it would be great to see the Department promote that message in secondary schools. It could also work with the CAO to get that news out to students.
A lot of people who are eligible for it do not claim it, like me. As we spoke about before, I did not claim it in first year, but I did in second year when I realised I was eligible for it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29